Comments on: Iowa on My Mind

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:36:48 +0000

Journo, no worries about your “tiny town” remark. Us Iowan’s are used to things like that. It’s just a part of life here.

If you ever want to get away from it all head to Iowa, “it” ain’t got here yet. It don’t seem to be heading this way either……..

By: Journo

Journo — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:45:00 +0000

Larry- Sorry, I should know better than that. I retract my original estimation, and change it to small/medium size town. Thats what I get for editorializing.

By: larry weeks

larry weeks — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:15:30 +0000

Hey, Newton isn’t tiny! Around here the 15,000 or 20,000 population of Newton darn near makes it a big city. My town is 1500, others nearby are 200 to 1000. Des Moines is probably 250 to 300,000 total in the “greater metropolitan area”. I know, you have 20,000 in one big city block, we spread that out over an entire county.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:01:38 +0000

Chad- The reason they “took” the date from Mansfield was because Mansfield is closing for the 2009 season, due to financial concerns.

Mansfield will have no events of any kind in 2009.

This was a Mansfield decision, and that opened up a date, and NASCAR let Iowa have it.

Bobby- Yes, that will be a big concern, I forgot to mention that one.

By: T.C.

T.C. — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:12:59 +0000

Bobby: I’m not aware of NASCAR having a specific number of seats required for a track to host a Cup race, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have one. Iowa would most definitely need to add seats in any case, as they only have 30,000. The tracks with the smallest seating capacity are Martinsville (65,000) and Darlington (63,000) I believe. So I would think they would need at the very least another 35,000-40,000 seats.

By: Neon

Neon — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:20:38 +0000

Chad-I thought about Homestead in it’s original config before progressive banking, but the problem there was that there wasn’t a distinct flattening out between turn 1 & 2 and 3 & 4. I like banking from a speed perspective, but it really is a crutch in a way w/ slower cars like we have today. In the pre-restrictor plate days (before Bobby Allison’s Talladega accident), even the banking was a challenge for “Winston” Cup cars averaging 212mph. Today’s cars are just slowed down too much for tracks like Daytona and Dega. Circuiting the track in no longer the challenge, it’s weaving through bunched traffic that poses the challenge. A man-made challenge so to speak!
A track that does pose a challenge and separate the talent is Pocono. Although 3 turns, it’s more like Indy thatn the orig Homestead.

By: chad

chad — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:30:46 +0000

Neon – The first configuration at homestead was a mini (1.5) mile version of Indy.

Iowa deserves a date, but so does Mansfield and other short tracks. That’s how the truck series started out. Should have taken the date from a gawd awful 1.5 cookie cutter instead.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:52:40 +0000

Kyle another thing stopping Iowa from a cup race is they would need about another hundred thousand seats. I recall there being a minimum of seats required for a track to have a cup race but I don’t remember how many. T.C. can you help with that?

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:34:46 +0000

It may have a little to do with the fact that I live in Iowa, but I think this track is very deserving of a NASCAR race. It already had Nationwide, and now it has the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race as well (its craftsman until January 1, 2009 at 12:01AM ET).

Not that there is any comparison between Indy and NASCAR, but the Indy Races have always been pretty exciting, and I don’t see why NASCAR won’t be the same way.

It would be nice to see a cup race, but unless a couple of tracks fall under the same thing Mansfield did(which is unlikely, i know) that ain’t going to happen

By: Neon

Neon — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:25:59 +0000

While there is a bit of Indy flavor in the above comments, I was just thinking about this. Since we’re tired of cookie-cutter 1-1/2′s and NASCAR more than likely would not another road course (darn! I love road racing) and other than the Indy Goodyear tire debacle…..I would love to see a true (4) seperate turn speedway on the schedule. Just a mini-Indy track somewhere w/ a really great park setting.
In my humble opinion, having short shoots between 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 adds a whole new element and difficulty that seperates driver’s talent levels. May add a “Darlington like” difference between ends of the track.
Any comments here???